The coaches were wrong when they voted USC No. 1 in their poll when the sports writers and sportscasters, in their infinite wisdom, dropped the Trojans to No. 2.

Now we know the writers and talkers also were wrong.

Way wrong.

That was painfully clear to the Trojans, and everyone else, on an otherwise beautiful Saturday afternoon in the Coliseum when Stanford upset them, 24-23.

It was the end of a 35-game winning streak in the Coliseum for USC.

Fair-weather USC fans reacted by booing the Trojans.

You thought Appalachian State upsetting Michigan was big. This was bigger. Really.

Appalachian State is a I-AA power with a strong record against D-I schools. Stanford is a D-I school that had the look of a I-AA wannabe. And not a good I-AA wannabe.

The Cardinal came to play with a 1-3 record. Worse yet, their starting quarterback Tavita Pritchard is a redshirt freshman who had played in one game, thrown two passes and competed one for 10 yards in his abbreviated college career.

The Trojans were favored by 37-to-41 points and that was a conservative spread.

How it works is Stanford can float back to Palo Alto without the cost of plane fare.

“This means a whole new world for us,” cheered Erik Lorig, the Cardinal defensive end from Peninsula High in Palos Verdes.

To say he was excited was an understatement. He was having a hard time stringing two sentences together as he jumped up and down and celebrated with his teammates.

“Everybody came to play,” he said. “We wanted the best and we got the best.”

The Trojans also wanted the best. They got the worst, which was what they deserved for letting Stanford hang around and hang around until Pritchard and senior wide receiver Mark Bradford came up with the big plays at the end.

Pritchard has good blood lines. The young hero from Tacoma, Wash. is the nephew of Jack Thompson, known as the Throwin’ Samoan when he was Washington State’s quarterback.

Carroll took the loss without any show of bitterness or anger.

“The guys who play the best win,” he said. “And they did. They played better than we did.”

Period. Case closed.

USC has a ton of talent. It could stock an expansion franchise in the NFL. It is not playing to that level. Not even close.

Too many mistakes. Too many blown assignments. Too many penalties. Too many missed blocks. Too many dropped passes. Too many Trojans not getting the job done.

Asked what was going through his mind after the loss, senior defensive end Lawrence Jackson (Inglewood High) did not blink.

“The first thing is the season is not over,” he said. “Yeah, we lost. We just need to band together like brothers and find a way to get back on the right track.”

Well-said. It was what senior leaders should say. It is the attitude USC needs to salvage a season before it is lost. A season that right now has the Trojans looking as if they will be in the unfamiliar position of being underdogs when they play Oct. 27 at Oregon and Nov. 10 at California.

What the Trojans have to do is stop playing like little brothers who have no other choice but to get pushed around.

Let Cal and Oregon thoughts sink. A week ago today, USC remained No. 1 in the country. Right now they look no better than No. 3 in the Pacific-10 Conference.

Things were so bad Saturday, Carroll said, that he missed when he tried to slam dunk his chewing gum into a trash can.

The margin of defeat was a blocked USC point after touchdown.

“That happened during the week,” Carroll said softly.

But it was more than that one bungled play. Much more.

“We played so miserably,” he said.

It felt that way because it was that way.

Typically, John David Booty, the Trojan quarterback, will be recipient of the heat because he, well, he’s the quarterback and he threw four interceptions.

Three drops in the first quarter threw him off his rhythm. Receivers breaking patterns off probably caused at least two interceptions.

But blame it on the quarterback if it makes you happy.

Booty will not blame his receivers. He never gives them up. Nor did he mention a cracked bone on his throwing hand.

The offensive line also did Booty no favors. This goes double for the tackles and tight ends. They allowed Booty to be sacked four times.

At least they were consistent. They did not open holes for the running backs.

“Our defense played great,” receiver Patrick Turner said.

He was correct. USC’s offense not only wore down Booty, it wore down the defense.

There was a we-let-them-down look on Turner’s face.

“Things just did not go our way,” he said of the offense and the final score.